Probation Service Users as Volunteers in Partnership Projects
| Date | 01 September 1996 |
| Published date | 01 September 1996 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059604300305 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
142
Probation
Service
Users
as
Volunteers
in
Partnership
Projects
Anita
Gibbs,
former
Probation
Officer,
now
a
research student
at
University
of
Bristol,
examines
the
benefits
and
disadvantages
for
probation
service
users
who
become
involved
as
volunteers
with
projects
in
formal
partnership
with
the
Service,
and
suggests
that
whilst
users
gain
voice,
choice
and
control,
their
probation
officers
experience
a
corresponding
loss
of
personal
relationship.
he
idea
of
offenders
becoming
volunteers
and/or
workers
in
caring
or
community
agencies
is
not
new,
a
well-
known
initiative
being
the
’New
Careers’
experiment
in
the
1970s’.
However,
the
common
image
of
a
volunteer
(caring,
committed,
wanting
to
be
involved)
does
not
readily
fit
the
contemporary
common
image
of
the
’offender’
as
selfish,
unreliable
and
uncommitted.
.
As
part
of
a
recent
study
of
partnerships
between
the
Probation
Service
and
voluntary
sector
agencies
in
South
West
England,
I
interviewed
15
probationers
and
community
service
workers,
(hereafter
referred
to
as
’users’)
who
were
acting
in
a
volunteer
or
co-worker
capacity
in
various
community
projects.
All
were
white,
predominantly
aged
18-30,
unemployed
or
on
employment
schemes,
eleven
being
male.
None
had
become
volunteers
as
a
formal
requirement
of
their
community
sentences,
albeit
that
volunteering
could
complement
supervision
or
could
count
towards
their
CS
hours.
This
sample
not
only
proved
the
offender
stereotype
wrong
but
also
revealed
an
awareness
of
the
needs
of
others
and
a
desire
to
share
the
lessons
they
had
learned
with
others.
Though
they
sometimes
struggled
with
their
commitments,
with
support
from
the
voluntary
organisations
they
kept
going.
The
projects
concerned
fell
into
three
categories:
1.
Projects
with
Users
as
Recipients
These
projects
provide
motor,
sports,
outdoor
pursuits
or
drug
services
for
probationers,
with
objectives
closely
matching
Probation
Service
aims
for
offenders.
Activities
or
counselling
count
towards
fulfilment
of
probation
requirements.
Users
thus
became
involved
as
clients
but
a
few
remained
as
‘voluntary’
participants
or
became
volunteer
helpers
after their
formal
programme
ended.
A
very
few
progressed
to
appointments
as
paid
sessional
workers
or
were
able
to
undertake
a
’training
for
work’
employment
placement
with
the
project.
Though
these
were
exceptional
instances,
it
was
clear
that
some
schemes
positively
encouraged
their
recipients
to
take
advantage
of
what
they
had
learned
and
use
it
to
help
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